Chapter 7: Tuskegee’s Forest

Ella's Point Of View.

"Yes, Ella," Henry continued. "You're a witch, and it's real. This is not a joke."

Panic had taken over my senses. It felt as though I had been thrust into another world different from the one I'd always known.

I was a witch!

"How is this even possible?" I asked. "One minute, I thought I was normal. The next minute, I'm healing a sick man!"

I stood on my feet and began to pace the room yet again—It felt as though I'd covered ten kilometers in this very room already. I could deal with the fact that Henry was a werewolf, fine. What I couldn't wrap my head around was the fact that I, Emmanuella, was something more than ordinary.

"It is possible!" Henry asserted. "As real as anything you're thinking about now. The Moon Goddess told me in the vision. She said your powers were pushed down by a sorcerer from your birth, but they could be stirred back up by certain events. This," he gestured towards his chest. "Is just a tip of the iceberg. It is only a glimpse of what your real powers as a witch could be."

"Who....who closed off my powers?" I asked in confusion and despair.

"I have no idea, Ella," Henry replied.

He stood on his feet and came to me. In slight fright, I staggered backwards. He didn't look like he'd been bedridden just a few minutes ago.

"Look," he started. "I would hate to disturb your perfect version of reality, but I need your help."

"My....my help?"

"Yes." He swallowed as he stood before me, bare-chested and long-haired. He looked like one of the dark, dashing princes I read about in novels. I fought hard not to stare at the hard, lean ridges that made up his chest.

"How do you need my help?"

"I told you, Ella. I need to gain my heritage back." He sighed, shaking his head slowly. "An ancestor of yours, a witch, cursed my father for life, because he stole something of hers. It is a pot known as the Pot of Solution. Apparently, whoever has it will automatically gain good fortune. It used to belong to someone in your lineage, until my father stole it."

I shook my head. "This has nothing to do with me!"

"It does!" He took another desperate step forward. "It does, because the witch cursed my father, and the curse has moved to me too. After my father died, my true home, my pack, was overpowered by strange rogue wolves. I will never be able to know my true legacy, as long as my home is lost. I will always know pain and desolation like a lone werewolf. I will forever be bent on the will of the Force. This is the curse I have to bear, Ella.

Henry's words seemed to ring true, but I shook my head in defiance still. "I have to find the Pot of Solution and return it to its original location to break this curse, Ella, and the only person other than my father who can find this Pot of Solution is the witch herself, and any of her descendants!"

Taking one last step towards me, Henry grabbed my hands and squeezed in desperation. "Please, Ella, help me find this pot!"

I stared in confusion at him, and then glanced down at our entwined hands. This day seemed to have taken a truly fast turn. Was this the bad company my uncle was talking about? Could I trust Henry? Was I wrong if I didn't trust him?

Finally, I decided to take a long leap into nothing, and replied, "So, you're saying that I am the only one who can find this.... Pot of Solace—"

"Pot of Solution, Ella." He corrected me. "And yes, you're the only one who can."

I sighed and moved my hands away from his. "And how can I do this? How can I help you?"

Henry sighed, tightening his jaw. "The Forest of Doom, and I have a very good idea where it is."

"Where?" I asked, curiosity aroused.

Henry looked at me with eyes made darkened by determination. "Do you have a map around here?"

********

I fished out a map of the country from the closet that I used in my sophomore year of high school for geography class. The map was very old and equally musty, and as I spread it across my table in my living room, a cloud of dust billowed upwards.

Henry coughed as dust wafted into his nostrils. "Man, I should have asked you for a dust-free map!"

A slight chuckle slipped from my lips. "This is all I have, Henry."

We held the corners of the map down using four mugs that I brought from my kitchen. Sitting beside Henry, I asked, "So, where is this Forest of Doom?"

Henry pointed to somewhere south-west of the map, in the state of California. "We're here, in San Diego, right?"

"Yes...."

"Before she died, my mum told me I was born in the state of Alabama, close to this forest here..." Henry pointed towards the eastern part of the state. "Tuskegee forest. That must be where my wolf pack is located. And if I am to take another wild guess, that is where our 'Forest of Doom' will be, too."

I nodded. "Right. But if you have it all figured out, then you do not exactly need my help, do you?"

"I do." He reached for my hand, gripping it tightly by his side. The hair on his arm tickled mine, and goosebumps raced up and down my own arm.

"If I go into the forest alone, I do not know what I will come to face there. And getting into the forest is one thing, but finding the Pot of Solution is another thing. You're a descendant of the first witch who cursed my father. You're the only one who can find it."

The glare of Henry's blue eyes was too intense for me to stare into. I kept my eyes fixated on the map, on the state of Alabama that hugged the border of Florida.

Tuskegee Forest. Who knew what it held for us?

"Right." I sighed, after a while. "Let's get ready to find your Pot of Solution, shall we?”